Sophie’s World Questions



TOK Summer Assignment: Sophie’s World

Reading assignment : ppg. 1-120, 233-281, 322-341, 360-384

(Answer any 6 of the questions below. Each answer should at least be close to a page long, double spaced. Feel free to write more if you want.)

1. Construct a dialogue between Plato and Aristotle concerning women’s ability to reason.

2. To what extent did Aristotle believe in fatalism?

3. Of all the philosophers before Aristotle, who are you most impressed with? Why?

4. Use modern science to support both Plato and Aristotle’s views of an “idea”.

5. Do you agree with the claim: “Rationalist philosophers want to attribute what they can not deduce by reason to God.” Or is this an inherently contradictory statement?

6. Would believing in a mechanistic world view make one more apt to be religious, or less? Why?

7. Of all the animals, Descartes believed that only humans were dual creatures. Do you think Descartes believed that babies (under 2 years old) had a mind? If not, how might he explain the process by which human beings acquired a mind, or thought?

8. Spinoza advocated people to free themselves from feelings and passions when making ethical decisions. If we free ourselves from feelings and passions, are we still human?

9. Would Locke disagree with Plato’s theory of ideas? Why or why not?

10. Hume distinguished between impressions and ideas. What has more influence in your life – impressions or ideas? Why?

11. Would Descartes agree with Berkeley’s statement, “we can moreover claim that the existence of God is far more clearly perceived than the existence of man”? Why or why not?

12. Why would Rousseau have been horrified at how children are being raised today? What type of solutions might he offer?

13. Kant felt that time and space are our natural modes of perception, not necessarily actual physical attributes. Is there anyway a human being can prove him wrong?

14. Hegel believed in a dialectic process of evolution of thoughts. Give an example of such a process that is not stated in the chapter of Sophie’s World on Hegel.

15. Do you agree with Kierkegaard that all things we can know through reason or knowledge are totally unimportant? Why or why not?

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